- Dominion Voting Systems has sued MyPillow and its CEO, Mike Lindell, for defamation and is demanding $ 1.3 billion in damages.
- The lawsuit alleges that Lindell marketed his sales with turbo-powered equipment while driving election fraud claims.
- Lindell told Insider he was actually losing tens of millions of dollars.
- Visit the Insider Business Department for more stories.
Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow, said he would lose $ 65 million in pillows this year as a result of retailers’ boycotts over his claim that the 2020 election was impeccable.
The losses, Lindell said in an interview with Insider on Monday after he filed a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems to claim $ 1.3 billion in damages, are proof that he is not insisting on election fraud for the money.
“I lost 20 retailers, and it cost me $ 65 million this year not to come back, OK?” Lindell told Insider. “There’s your story. Print it right. Do not try to distort it.”
The 121-page case alleges that the pillow mother used conspiracy theories about the election to hinder sales for his business, by using conspiracy phrases as discount codes and placing expensive advertisements on like-minded media.
“Lindell – a talented salesman and former professional cardholder – is selling the lie to this day because the lie sells pillows,” Tom Clare, the defamation lawyer representing Dominion Voting Systems, wrote in the case.
Dominion says Lindell uses conspiracy theories in the election as a way to sell more pillows
Lindell has been an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump for years. A former crack addict and professional gambler, he attributes the success of his business to his aggressive advertising strategy, which pushed MyPillow’s revenue to more than $ 300 million in 2019.
According to Dominion’s lawsuit, the advertising strategy involves the intertwining of his personal brand and that of his company in the right-wing media to juice sales.
MyPillow has spent tens of millions of dollars on media channels such as Fox News and Newsmax – both of which are also targets for lawsuits over false lies. After Donald Trump lost the November election, Lindell falsely claimed that Dominion was directing the election. MyPillow sponsored a “March for Trump” tour (which was actually a bus) where Lindell spoke at rallies claiming the election was stolen.
Dominion argues in the lawsuit that the conspiracy theories are a platform for Lindell to sell more pillows.
‘After Michael Lindell hit the jackpot with Donald Trump’s approval of MyPillow and a $ 1 million bet on Fox News ads, he took another chance to boost sales: MyPillow markets to people who would perform and would attend rallies to hear Lindell tell the ‘Big Lie’ that Dominion stole the 2020 election, ‘Clare wrote.
My Pillow CEO Michael J. Lindell cheers as US President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a 2018 campaign.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Lindell told Insider that MyPillow’s advertising strategy is different from his personal policy. He said MyPillow has advertising and sponsorship contracts with the likes of CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post and the New York Times – all of which he is not a fan of – as well as about 5,000 podcasts and radio and TV stations.
“I advertise everywhere. And every place breaks even or earns money,” he said.
A Times representative told Insider that it last hosted MyPillow ads in 2015. The other media that Lindell mentioned did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Lindell dismissed the idea that he had a ‘preconceived plan’ to make money by claiming that Dominion and Smartmatic, a rival election technology company also involved in conspiracy theories, were running for president. He said the retail boycott of brands such as Kohl’s and Bed Bath & Beyond cost him tens of millions of dollars in revenue.
“The stores had $ 65 million in business last year. And now I will not have it this year or a year,” he said. “They’re done.”
Lindell says he’s just trying to save America
After the January 6 uprising, in which a pro-Trump mob tried to stop Congress from confirming the election results, Lindell only doubled the claim of election fraud.
He met Trump in the Oval Office and made notes with him, proposing that the president declare martial law. He continued to propel the theories into media appearances and funded a two-hour ‘docu-film’ called ‘Absolute Proof’. He was, like Trump before him, eventually banned from Twitter.
He says he openly welcomes the Dominion lawsuit he is facing now and says they would offer him a way to prove his allegations of a difficult election.
“I’m glad I received the papers today,” Lindell said.
To bolster his claims that Lindell linked conspiracy theories to MyPillow sales, Dominion’s lawsuit contained a dozen pages of social media users saying they were buying MyPillow products to support Lindell’s fraud.
“Mike Lindell is a true Patriot and an American hero to stand up for the truth. I buy more pillows using discount code NEWSMAX #ElectonFraudHappened #MikeLindell #MyPillowGuy #MyPillow,” one person wrote on Twitter. “The mypillow man is being attacked by evil leftists. Go to mypillow.com and spend a lot,” wrote another.
Donald Trump listens to Michael J. Lindell, CEO of MyPillow Inc., speak during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus in March.
MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images
Dominion’s lawsuit also alleges that Lindell used discount codes on his website linked to right-wing conspiracy theories, including the use of ‘FightforTrump’ as a discount code while Trump supporters literally fought officers at the Capitol, and ‘Proof’ after his’ docu film. . “
But Lindell said advertising partners made the discount codes. “FightforTrump”, for example, came from a podcast that MyPillow worked with – one of the hundreds of radio hosts with which MyPillow has sponsorship contracts.
He said that controversies over advertising have usually increased sales for his company, but that boycotts since January appear to have caused long-term damage to pillow sales.
“When I’m boycotted, people tend to buy more pillows – at least in the short term,” Lindell told Insider. “I always get a little lift for a few days when they attack the company. But this time is different now.”
Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow, is waiting outside the West Wing of the White House before entering January 15, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
Despite the damage to his company, Lindell is willing to continue with his allegations so that he can save the country from the pernicious influence of communism. He said he did not believe the people demanding retailers to boycott MyPillow were real, claiming it was a clash.
“I’m not a stupid person. I have a great company that I built from scratch. I’m an old addict and I’m not going to retire from some big billion dollar business trying to steal our country. he said.
“All I want now is this election. I do not care how much it costs me,” he added.
Lindell’s allegations about the election are unfounded
Recently, Lindell returned to the spotlight after releasing a self-made documentary called ‘Absolute Proof’, which claims that voter interference in some states has caused states of Donald Trump to ‘turn around’ to then-President Joe Biden.
For example, one data table in the film says that nearly 200,000 votes from Wisconsin were improperly marked as absent ballots and therefore had to be counted differently – although several governments and federal judges, including one appointed by Trump, approved the counting of votes. .
The “docu-film” also claims that several countries, including China, Iran and the United Kingdom, were complicit in arousing inconsistencies in the election.
Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow.
Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images
It is not clear where the data in “Absolute Proof” came from. Lindell claims it comes from ‘government-owned spyware’ and is represented by a ‘mega-computer’ in maps and graphs. Federal agencies said the 2020 election was ‘the safest in history’, and judges have thrown out dozens of lawsuits to challenge election results and found no evidence of irregularities.
According to Lindell, “Absolute Proof” has been viewed more than 110 million times, although he did not want to testify to the number of viewers. This year’s Super Bowl had about 96 million viewers.
Lindell told Insider he was not worried about Dominion’s lawsuit against him, saying he had “bigger fish to fry” and “much bigger things” he was working on. He said he has a “massive team” of lawyers working on the case, and that he has all the necessary evidence to prove his case.
“It’s going to the Supreme Court. And if that happens, it will be a nine-zero vote that our country has been attacked,” Lindell said. “And then all the media will finally come and go, wow, ‘Mike, you know what? You were right all along.'”